Med School - On Hiatus

Recently a friend asked me how my day was, and, being the joyful medical-student-on-summer-vacation that I am, I answered with these exact words: "Beautiful. Shadowed in the OR in the morning [for the speciality I'm interested in], spent most of the afternoon at the park, worked on my [favorite hobby] in the evening, going to the gym soon." To which my friend replied, "Sounds glorious...I hope God gives you a good day like today everyday."

Well, that response got the wheels turning. Not just that I have an awesome friend who would give a response such as that, but the reminder that this day was given by God.

I tried to imagine what my day would have been like if I had done exactly the same activities, but was not a Christian. And I realized - even if the outward events had been precisely identical, my reaction to the day would have been listless, dull, empty, shallow. Instead, as a Christian, I returned at the end of the day to my apartment physically exhausted but spiritually full, bounding with joy, my soul deep in the riches of this spiritual life God has given us.

That's the thing. I don't believe that being a Christian will necessarily change your life in a grandiose, monumental way that's visible to the world. It certainly can - Christianity can lead you to missionary work in Africa, or it may call you to priesthood or celibacy as a nun or monk. But for the majority of us, I believe being a Christian changes your life in the little things - in the details of your daily activities that without God behind the curtain would be lifeless, monotonous, meaningless.

God infuses Himself in everything we do. In every detail of our life, in every action we do and breath we take, He is there - if we let Him be. I took a walk in the park today in a particularly scenic area by a lake, and a spontaneous prayer erupted inwardly - "Thank you Lord for making such a beautiful place for us to enjoy!" That reaction made my experience in the park infinitely more special and memorable. It gave meaning and greater depth to what I was doing at that moment. It gave my activity a dimension that I could only barely begin to understand, because that dimension stretched from my lowly state to the highest of the heavens.

God gives meaning to everything we do. Every relationship, every action, every success or failure - cannot be measured by worldly standards, for the worldly standards are in and of themselves ambivalent creations of flawed worldly beings. They must be measured by something true and absolute - and this can only be done in a spiritual life, in a state of being when one's soul is connected to God.

How empty our lives would be without their Creator to fill them! What I have been trying to say in this post can be summed up nicely in a quote from one of my favorite contemporary Christian apologists via the mouth of Uncle Screwtape: "We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over."